The Public Information Annex

Helpful notices from a bureau that is trying very hard not to alarm anyone.

Pamphlets / civic warnings / impossible instructions

Operating thesis

The Annex is where the Reader becomes most public-service and most strange. The language is helpful. The subjects are not always normal.

A good pamphlet should sound like a school board, a park office, and a dream speaking through a photocopier at the same time.

Annex Rack

Pamphlets for the careful viewer

PIA-04

How to Listen to the Forest

Do not begin with birds. Begin with the building you arrived in. Then walk outward until the building stops answering.

Visitor handout
PIA-09

Recognizing Dead Air

Dead air is not silence. It is a broadcast that has momentarily lost its instructions.

Station notice
PIA-12

When the Lake Repeats a Sound

Do not record the second echo as evidence unless the first echo has been witnessed.

Water safety
PIA-21

Instructions for Young Viewers

Look closely at the animal. Then look at the map. Then decide which one is being asked to behave.

Classroom sheet
Specimens

What the room keeps

style

Civic Calm

The tone must remain calm enough that the impossible instruction feels approved.

colour

Photocopy Orange

A colour reserved for urgent notices, tape-box warnings, and marginal corrections.

ethic

Public Tenderness

The Annex warns people because it still believes people can be careful.

Reference Shelf

Where this room points

Lab indexHeadquarters